


Stay, Stay, Stay

by twentyfourthtribute



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-06
Updated: 2015-08-06
Packaged: 2018-04-13 05:02:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4508817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twentyfourthtribute/pseuds/twentyfourthtribute
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Warm summer nights and fights with Gale bring Katniss back to a party with her long lost friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay, Stay, Stay

She sitting on the brown tiled roof, heady cigarette smoke billowing around her with the light chill of the evening air causing her to wrap her arm around herself.  
Drunk.  
She was very, very drunk. But at least she was with friends… or was, before she decided to climb onto the roof with a girl she had just met to get some "fresh" air. Johanna's cigarette smoke wasn't exactly the most refreshing after being a room full of drunk and sweaty bodies. But at least the air was cool.  
Last Friday when she had agreed to tag along to a party with friends she hadn't seen for years, Gale was, at the very least, pissed off. So pissed that he locked her out and told her to come back when she had realized how stupid she was being. Obviously her friends had other intentions, they didn't want to just reminisce. Things were different now. She had him now.  
Stubborn as a bull, she drove over to Peeta's house and banged on his front door at two am. He didn't say a word, he knew she didn't want to talk about it. So, she slept on his family’s couch, only groaning in response when he woke up for his morning shift and shuffled off to his parent's bakery, knowing she knew where the spare key was to lock up when she left later that morning.  
Her phone was off, shoved somewhere in a backpack thrown in a closet in her friend Finn's room. She was sure that Gale had called at least ten times before she had decided to lock the device away and ignore him. She could have friends. He could at least give her one night. Right?  
Johanna's cigarette smoke was clearing up when she rose from her seat on the tile. "Brainless, are you going to come take a jagerbomb with me or not?" Katniss sighed. Really, she shouldn't.  She shrugged.  
"Not if you don't knock it off with the nickname. We just met, I don't know you." The severe looking lean girl in front of her, precariously walking around the sloped roof, snorted.  
"Well, I wouldn't call you that if you weren't so obviously brainless." Katniss didn't know what to to say to that, and really just didn't understand this girl. But she liked her energy, so she could handle a nickname for one night. At least it wasn't Catnip.  
"Give me a few minutes, I just want to air out. It's hot as hell in there." Katniss found herself alone shortly after.  
A while later, she felt slightly more sober and was feeling more adventurous, she ducked back In through the kitchen window. She was immediately greeted with the smell of rye whiskey and mountain dew. Beetee grinned at her and offered her their old high school staple, which she was too humble to say she she had outgrown. She graciously took it and asked where the hell Wiress had gone. "Bed. One too many of these," he clinked the ice around in his own beverage and shrugged.  
Katniss roamed the apartment, weaving through bodies playing Cards Against Humanity and Shots and Ladders. Her eyes searched the room, never landing on what she was looking for. Suddenly, Finn launches himself onto her, half naked and laughing hysterically and begging her to play a game of beer pong with him. It had been years. They had been the best. Katniss disagreed, and wasn't exactly up for house rules of stripping articles of clothing when you lost a game. She wasn't quite _that_ drunk. But apparently Johanna was, so the spunky girl she barely understood sidled up beside Finn and she found herself alone again.  
Alone to think. Alone to drink. She needed to find a distraction and fast or this buzz was going to go south. Why did Gale have to be so against this? He could have made an appearance! She felt like she had lost her friends within the year after she had moved in with him. Especially Peeta.  
God, where _was_ Peeta?  
In high school, they shared a few classes and would always meet up to roam around downtown doing everything and nothing at all. Conversation between them had always come naturally, easy. He never pushed her to talk, unlike many of her other friends. He was steadfast and always a positive force.  
A smile played on her lips as she remembered the day that they had Saturday detention together, doomed to silence but passing notes back and forth. He had drawn her a dandelion, and she had written him a short story about teenagers in a battle to the death, because as she had told him earlier, she'd rather die than waste her day in a library when she could out in the forest with Gale.  
He had grimaced. It seemed that the only thing they disagreed on was Gale. Katniss understood that her new relationship had put a strain on their friendship, because they were no longer attached at the hip, but they still saw each other.   
The day had ended well, with Peeta driving her to get ice cream at their favorite eatery uptown. He smirked as he ordered for her, a never changing order of a chocolate dipped vanilla cone and a glass of water, which she would never touch. She had poked fun at his unsweetened tea and pistachio ice cream, claiming there was no way he could have actually been born in the south. He shook his head and chuckled.  
Shaking her head clear of the memory, she silently moved through the room and made her way out to the well worn porch. She suddenly was feeling warm again and, honestly, a bit stifled.   
The humid southern summer breeze hit her as she walked outside and leaned over the railing. Yes, this was much more safe that Johanna's earlier suggestion. God, she had missed their mountain getaway so much. Every summer in high school, they would sneak up to Finn’s cabin and dance and drink the nights away. She looked up at the stars and felt peaceful. Just as she was closing her eyes and breathing in the night air deeply, she felt the wooden deck creak as familiar footsteps stumbled onto the porch.  
"There you are. I thought you were hiding from me. Honestly, I was just about to get Finn help me climb trees to see if you'd climbed one to get away from us again." Katniss frowned at the stocky boy in front of her. His blonde hair falling in front of his eyes, hiding them from sight.  
"Now, you know I'd never hide from you, Peeta."   
He sloshed around a bit. She'd never seen him quite _this_ drunk. "Y'know, I thought you wouldn't come tonight. I do feel like you're just never around anymore. We started to think you didn't care about us anymore. Like we weren't friends."  
Katniss' eyebrows furrowed at this, suddenly feeling exhasperated. She really did _not_ feel up to another fight, especially not with Peeta. "I slept on your couch last week, Peeta. We eat lunch once a week together in the quad. We’re friends."  
"'snot the same. It's not like it used to be. I miss you." She sighed. " _Besides_ , I had to seek you out to even have lunch with you, Katniss. You never told me you were going to community college, too." This was true. She had known he was attending, but had kept her distance because of Gale. She just preferred coming home to a less broody, prying boyfriend.  
"Katniss, I just worry. I _just_ … I don't want to lose you." He wobbled as a group of party goers hustled through the door, chasing a now naked Finn, trying to stop him from running into the street. Peeta visibily eased as Katniss flushed at the sight of Finn -- not that this was the first time he had pulled a stunt like this. It pleased him to see that she hadn’t changed _too_ much and was still a little innocent.  
"Peeta, you're not losing me. I'm _right here_." She reached out to touch his, as if to prove that she really were. Something in his eyes changed, sparkling bright, and she was immediately aware of exactly how closely they were standing. She was used to being close to Peeta, but the air between them felt charged.  Like if something didn't happen right at that moment, maybe she would start to lose Peeta. And that was the _last_ thing she wanted.  
Lost in her thoughts, she felt Peeta press his lips against hers. Drunkenly perhaps, she felt her lips ease against his in compliance. They were so soft. So warm. So gentle. So Peeta.  
They felt like home.  
When he instantly pulled away and began to sputter his apologies, how he knew she was with _Gale_ , how he should have at least _asked_ first, Katniss was overtaken with the desire to just feel his lips against her again.  
So, she did.  
All but tackling him against the railing, Katniss pressed her lips against his forcefully and was home once more. How had she not noticed before? Why had no one told her? Finally, she understood Johanna's nickname for her. Finally, she felt like she could be free and safe at the same time. To hell with consequences that would come the next day when she finally answered her phone and had to talk to Gale. Figure out the future. All she knew was that she wanted to freeze this moment and live in it forever.  
That night, slightly sobered up and with goofy grins, they piled into the living room with all the other drunken party guests and lined their sleeping bags up against each other's, falling asleep with their hands clasped together as if they would somehow lose each other through the night.  
Before they finally drifted off to sleep, Peeta asks her, "Is this really happening?"  
With a smile on her face, and not a care in the world because she finally knows what she wants, "Real" is all she says before his blue eyes shutter closed.

  


_____________________

guys, any thoughts on this?

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first drabble or fanfic, really, in ten years and first in the fandom. Critical feedback is welcome.


End file.
